Tag Archives: child development

My Baby Has Started Hitting

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My little guy is almost 14 months old. In almost all aspects of my life, he is pure joy. I could do without the sleepless nights we are still having, and the screaming, but for the most part, I love him just like he is. Except for one little nasty habit he has started. Hitting. Really? I don’t remember either of my other two doing this at this age. Maybe time heals all wounds and I have just forgotten? But, in all seriousness, I felt kind of sad about it, and have been wondering what to do. After all, he … Continue reading →

My Baby is a Screamer

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I think that I have a screamer on my hands. No wait, I know I do. Neither of my other children ever screamed like my little guy is doing. Yesterday, we took our little guy to church as usual on Sundays, and we were sitting in class and he was playing with some crayons. He was getting frustrated because he was not able to take them in and out of the bag that they were in easily. So, he started screaming. I am not talking about a cry, but I am talking about a scream of frustration. It seems this is … Continue reading →

The Bath Time Circus

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Giving my kids baths has always been a fun experience when they are babies. They love to splash and kick, the warm water soothes them, and my babies have all loved bath time. But, recently my little guy has become Trouble with a capital “T” at bath time. It is driving me a little crazy. Gone are the days when he would just lay in the water, kick his legs and smile up at me happily. Now, he is a crazy man all over the place. He wants toys to entertain him (understandable since he sees his older siblings with them) … Continue reading →

Letting Go

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It is interesting to watch a person learn to walk. That is one of my favorite parts of child development. It is such a huge milestone to see your child take those first steps. I love it. My daughter walked just a couple of days after her first birthday. I just couldn’t believe how quickly she progressed from that first baby step, to full blown walking everywhere. My middle child walked a few days before his first birthday. And, his walk was hilarious. He would hold one arm out to the side and sway it back and forth wildly, while … Continue reading →

The Voice Your Children Hear for Life

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Have you ever heard your father say, “How could you have done something so stupid?” or “What on earth possessed you to do that?” What is really telling is when the child who hears these questions from their dads is all grown up, and he or she continues to hear these same questions in the that same familiar voice inside of their head. Only this time it’s at work, they just made a mistake, and they are so critical of themselves that they can’t get beyond the mistake in order to find the answer. Maybe they try to hide their … Continue reading →

Absent Fathers and the Awful Statistics – Part One

If you are like me and have done any research at all on the internet about absent fathers, then you have found some pretty pathetic statistics. There are many researchers and organizations that have collected data on missing or absent fathers. According to the statistics compiled by the National Fatherhood Initiative: • Father Factor in Poverty – Children in father-absent homes are five times more likely to be poor. In 2002, 7.8 percent of children in married-couple families were living in poverty, compared to 38.4 percent of children in female-householder families. • Father Factor in Maternal and Infant Health – … Continue reading →

In the Genes?

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Last night my daughter was talking about how she wanted to be a mom someday. “But I’ll probably have to take medicine,” she said, making a face, “Because you have to take medicine and Grandma has to take medicine.” Looking back on it, I could have just said something like, “Different people may need different medicine at different times” and been done with it. But I said something that I thought would be reassuring for her, then wondered if maybe it wasn’t. What I said was, “Actually, you know what? Those are the kinds of things you get from genes, … Continue reading →

Kids Say the Darnedest Things

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The older I get the more it seems time flies by and my children are growing up too fast. My oldest child always did seem to be much older than his actual age. When he was around 10 years old his pet parakeet was acting weird so he picked the bird up in his hands. The bird – a white parakeet, who he had named “Rainbow” because he loved it “more than all the colors of the rainbow” – proceeded to die right in the palm of his little hand. My son was traumatized and was crying uncontrollably. No matter … Continue reading →

Children Learn and Develop One Step at a Time

While many of us parents find that our children definitely do not follow those growth and development charts perfectly and fit absolutely into the “average”–I do still believe that children do learn and develop step by step. One child may speed through the steps faster than another, and many children tend to go in stops, starts and spurts–but overall, I think as parents we need to respect that things happen step by step. Expecting a child to go from sitting to running sounds pretty ludicrous, doesn’t it? Still, if we get stuck comparing our children to others we may wonder … Continue reading →

Are We Too Quick to Label?

It seems to be a reality of modern life that we parents worry that our child may have a learning disability, mental health problem, physical ailment, or other diagnosable problem. It has become the norm to try to get children in to see specialists at a very young age for “early detection” or early intervention. I cannot help but wonder, however, if we are too quick to label and actually setting children down a path that they might otherwise avoid? I am certainly not an educational expert or a psychiatrist, just a worn down, experienced parent–but I see more and … Continue reading →